We left the room through a heavy carved wooden door and entered a dimly lit hallway. The walls were lined with rich, dark wood, intricately carved with ornamental patterns. Brass pipes and gears ran the length of the hallway, both functional and decorative. Their polished surfaces captured the warm glow of the light bulbs hanging from the ceiling. The floor was covered with lush patterned carpets - probably to muffle the echo of footsteps. The carpets were punctuated by polished brass floor vents. "We can decorate the rooms however we like. Each room has a little personal touch. Cáit explained to me. She had definitely seen my fascinated expression. At the end of the hall was a magnificent staircase, its wrought iron railings twisting and turning like the gears of a clock. A large stained glass window bathed the staircase in a multitude of colours. 

At the bottom of the stairs, we were greeted by a scene of dark wood, polished brass and warm candlelight. An imposing chandelier hovered over the room, casting a soft golden light. A long dining table stretched across the room, flanked by heavy upholstered chairs with embossed leather backs. Ornate paintings and mechanical relics hung on the walls, but the real eye-catcher was the bar, its dark wood decorated with beautiful brass and bronze work. Behind the counter was a young woman with brown dreadlocks who looked at us with amusement. She wore a white short-sleeved shirt with frills and a tight black vest. Her leather trousers were held in place by finely crafted leather suspenders decorated with gold, and she wore a gold necklace around her neck.

"Has our Sleeping Beauty finally awoken?" she said and Cáit nodded, "Yes. And the potion seems to have done its job."
"That's good news. If that stuff hadn't worked, I'd probably have had to wring someone's neck," the woman said, relieved, before calling into the kitchen, "Abby, prepare something to eat." Then she walked slowly towards us and said, "Please, sit down. Food will be ready in a few minutes."
I did as she asked and grabbed one of the chairs nearby. After the others had taken their seats, the bartender's friendly expression suddenly changed and she looked a bit angry. "Cáit is a brick short of a load, and no one here is surprised. But you, young lady, you are even more careless," the woman began to lecture me, "How stupid do you have to be to take on a potential steam ghost and a steel golem with an improvised weapon and a touch of nothing as protective clothing?"
The woman and I clearly had a different understanding of "a touch of nothing". Besides, I was wearing protective clothing. However, the standards in my world seem to be different from here. Otherwise, I couldn't disagree with her.
"Didn't we talk yesterday about the fact that you're not in a position to give her one of your annoying lectures?" a mocking voice was suddenly heard from the kitchen, "She doesn't belong to our guild, so she can do whatever she wants."
"Shut up, lil sis," the woman moaned back loudly, "Someone needs to tell our guest that their rescue mission was incredibly stupid."
"I'm sorry," I said sheepishly, and the woman suddenly started to smile, "That's all I wanted to hear from you. Cáit has already taken all the blame anyway." Suddenly the woman added in a softer, more conciliatory tone, "I've never seen Cait look after anyone so selflessly. She even insisted that we put you in her room until you recovered, even though we had plenty of rooms available."
"Because my bed is just a lot more comfortable," Cáit replied surprisingly defiantly, before blushing briefly.

The direction this conversation was taking surprised me. I had expected the lecture to start now, but the woman made no further move to rip me a new one. Instead, she began to introduce herself, "Sara O'Neill. Guild Master of the Treasure Hunters Guild. Pleasure to meet you."
"Emsley Thompson. The pleasure is all mine," I replied, "but I prefer to be called Em."
"That's all right," Sara nodded, "and the little pain in the ass who is currently in charge of your lunch is my little sister Abigail. For your own safety, you might want to call her Abby." I suddenly had to giggle. I didn't want to be called by my name, so it would be wrong to do that to Abigail.

Meanwhile, Hannah came into the dining room - overloaded with books, "Sara. I took some of the books written in a language that no one in this century can read anymore. I had enough frustrating history lessons for one day and needed something more entertaining. I'll take over from Cáit in a moment. She must be hungry by now."
"You can save yourself the trip," Cáit replied, "Em's finally awake."
The way Hannah had stacked the books, there was no way she could have seen us. After putting the books on the nearest table, she ran over to us and suddenly threw her arms around me, hugging me to her chest. 
"Why the hell is everyone hugging me?" I asked annoyed and Sara replied with a laugh, "Gratitude. Relief. Joy. Pick your poison."
"If you don't like hugs, just tell us," Hannah replied hesitantly and unsurely, but I didn't want to spoil the game and just mumbled, "It's fine. I'm just not used to it."
Hannah had already replaced her yellowed, damaged clothes and visually adapted to her surroundings. One might think she was raiding Sara's wardrobe. Only her blue military jacket was a reminder that we had found her in a secret chamber under a dungeon about two days ago.

"Cáit," Hannah said suddenly, calm as always, "have you spoken to Sara about your request?"
Cáit just shook her head and mumbled, "I haven't had the chance yet. Besides, I wanted to talk to Em about it first. If she's not interested..."
Sara seemed to suspect what Cáit wanted and simply said, "You want me to allow Emsley to join our guild. Don't you?"
"Yes," Cáit replied sheepishly, taking me completely by surprise.
"Give me one good reason why I should do that?" 
Sara immediately asked the question I would have asked in this situation. Somehow it felt like my former life. Especially at school, this or similar questions were always asked when I wanted to join a club or group. Back then, I could never really understand this negative attitude towards me. In this world, however, I could understand it, and I hadn't really covered myself with fame yet. Besides, it wasn't about joining the school chess club or the basketball team. Cáit wanted me to be accepted into a group that made their living by putting their lives in real danger for a few treasures.
"I have many reasons," Cáit replied surprisingly forcefully, "starting with the fact that Em, like me and the twins, seems to have no family left."
"Is that true?" Sara suddenly asked me and I nodded, "My parents are dead, I have no siblings and my remaining relatives are useless losers.”
Okay, that was mean even by my own low standards. But at least I didn't have to lie. 

Sara nodded briefly before looking at Cáit expectantly, "Well, that was a reason - and unfortunately not a good one. Next try?"
I understood her reaction. I didn't really know much about this world, but if that had been a good enough reason to join this guild, there would probably be more than four people in the dining room right now.
Cáit thought for a moment and then said, "You worry about me all the time. And I know you've wanted to force a guardian on me for a while now. Let me take responsibility for Em... and form a team with her."
This reason was somehow even worse than the first, but I thought it was cute that Cáit was trying so hard. 
"Are you really sure?" I had to ask Cáit, "When you found me in the dungeon, I didn't even know how to use ether. And that's definitely not my only knowledge gap. They don't teach us this stuff in the north."
"That's not a problem," Hannah interrupted surprisingly, "Cáit and I can teach you how to use ether properly in no time. It's really not that difficult. Even a three year old understands the basics within a few days."
"And we could teach you the other stuff along the way," Sara said thoughtfully, before asking Cáit rather bluntly, "What added value would our little one bring to the guild?"

"I was just about to finish your stupid game, big sis," a young woman with white hair and red eyes interrupted us, "but I would actually be interested in that answer too." While we waited for Cáit's answer, she placed two plates on the table for us. The food reminded me very much of home, looking like gammon, chips and peas.
"All I wanted was a quiet and peaceful life," I muttered, "but since Cáit's going into town for me, I'll give her a hand. Share status screen."
The two sisters read the little information on the screen carefully, and then Abby said, "If she really can use some kind of repair magic, then you must accept her. I doubt you could live with yourself if she fell into the hands of the Adventurers' Guild. They would just see her as their personal toy anyway."
"I know that," Sara grumbled, "I would like to accept her as a new member of the guild. We all know that we need new members... but..."
"The guild doesn't have the funds at the moment to buy some additional slots for me and Em from the city hall," Hannah guessed out of the blue, catching Sara off guard, "You weren't playing with open cards when we had the same conversation yesterday. It took me five minutes to gather that information while I was buying new clothes for myself. Fortunately, merchants are still very talkative.”
It didn't even sound strange to me, as membership fees were something quite normal in my world. While I was lost in thought, Hannah continued her explanation, "It turns out that the Adventurers' Guild has had a monopoly on recruiting new members for free for almost a decade now. And if my sources are to be believed, they are currently recruiting anyone and everyone - either for shoddy work or for their own personal pleasure and wealth. Em and I would definitely fall into the second category, as neither of us are fighters. And being two cute girls, we can make them money in other ways."
The calmness with which Hannah spoke about this subject made me shudder. I glanced at Cáit, noticing that the normally cheeky girl had become very quiet, and I got the impression that she didn't know anything about these things which was very interesting as she had only joined the guild four years ago.

"Exactly," Sara confirmed, "most of Abby's and my savings go into maintaining the building. The twins and Angus are trying to raise some money by doing some extra quests right now. But it probably won't be enough to buy new slots for Em and Hannah. And even if there was enough money to buy them... the Adventurers' Guild would just try to put more obstacles in our way."
"And if I register as a merchant? As Hannah rightly pointed out, I am not a fighter. The only thing I'm good at is fixing things," I asked naively. 
"It wouldn't really make a difference," Sara replied, "it's a vicious circle. You have to belong to a guild to open a shop. But it doesn't necessarily have to be the Merchant's Guild, even if they have the best connections and the most knowledge. Ultimately, the guild will have to get you a free slot from the town council. The only exceptions are if you want to join the army or the Adventurers' Guild. And of course, the nobility in this country can do whatever they want." It was hard to ignore the hatred at the mention of the nobility.
"And if that wasn't enough, the only registration office is in the middle of the Adventurers' Guild. The other guilds simply don't have the resources to deal with the bureaucracy," Sara continued, "which of course gives them another opportunity to lure new members from other guilds at short notice.
"Funnily enough, we have enough work for at least a handful of additional members without even looking for treasure," Abby suddenly took over, "simply because other guilds and merchants prefer to hire us instead of the Adventurers' Guild, since our members spend all day scavenging through cleared dungeons and can therefore pick up items at lower prices. We have had to turn down lucrative quests recently because we simply do not have the manpower. Even if I started taking on quests, this wouldn’t be enough. And then there would be no one to look after the building.”

A quick glance in Cáit's direction was enough for me to make up my mind. Since the usually cheerful girl looked incredibly sad, I asked Sara bluntly, "How much would it cost you to buy additional slots for Hannah and me? I'm thinking of opening a small shop here in the area eventually, so I'd have to put up with this crap anyway.”
"5000 Yorkies per slot," Sara muttered and I started to do the maths in my head, "In other words, the guy who sold you my medicine needs to sell two thousand bottles to make his first profit? Probably more. I don't know anything about taxes here." I simply multiplied the amount by two, as I was expecting material costs of around 50 per cent. And from what I'd heard in the last few minutes, I'd be surprised if there weren't some additional fees. "That should be about right," Abby nodded. 

I asked Cáit, "Is it really so important to you that someone as useless as me joins your guild?"
Deep down I already knew the answer, and it only took a moment for Cáit to nod silently.
"Then it is settled. Since I have the resources, I will simply pay for my place myself. And it seems that I will have to pay for Hannah's as well, if the guild is willing to provide shelter for two more lonely strays."
"I sold one of my expensive bracelets and could only get enough money to buy some new clothes," Hannah murmured, "If you really can afford it, I gratefully accept your offer. I promise I will try to pay you back as soon as I can."
"Hannah basically moved into one of the spare rooms anyway because she wanted to stay and study the old books in our library in peace," Abby explained, "you could say we are a family run guest house. Cáit has been renting a room for years."
"I was fourteen when I joined the guild, I had nowhere else to go and the rooms are cheap," Cait muttered, "It would be stupid not to live here.".

Surprisingly, it was Sara who hesitated, "I just want to be clear. Even if you bought a seat, you would still be subject to the rules of the guild.”
"Your guild, your rules," I muttered, "I've already noticed that I get scolded when I carelessly put myself in danger. As I've never met my mother, being scolded by a woman is new to me." 
Cáit and Abby had to stop themselves from laughing out loud. 
"That would be one of the rules. But we can talk about the guild's loose rules later," Sara tried to remain serious, "more importantly, you need to build up a second source of income, because we don't know how long we'll have so many additional quests. Cáit sells her homemade potions, the twins usually go hunting. Headquarters is taken care of by Abby and me. You already mentioned that you want to open a shop. So this rule should not be a problem for you anyway." Sara was right, this rule actually suited me quite well, especially since I wasn't really interested in doing much adventuring.
"Em and I could team up in this case," Hannah said suddenly, "I'm a researcher and she seems to know all this tech stuff. Could be a very exciting collaboration." Hannah's idea of using me as her personal mechanic surprised me a little, but this collaboration would probably make sense, especially in the beginning - after all, Hannah wanted to teach me how to use my ether properly. Since this rule was fine with me, I simply took 10,000 Yorkies from my item bag and gave the money to Sara, "You can start the necessary steps.”
"I can reserve the slots for us," Sara murmured, "but you'll have to go to the guild and register yourself. Let's hope they don't give you any problems. Rumour has it that they have been trying to force people to join the Adventurers' Guild lately. However, registration can wait until tomorrow. For today, I suggest you go shopping if you feel well enough. I can't imagine you wanting to wear Cáit's oversized shirt all the time."

Actually, the shirt was quite comfortable, but Sara was right - I needed some proper clothes, and more importantly, I needed things that fit into this world. 
"Do you want to come with me?" I asked Cáit and suddenly there was that mischievous smile on her face again, "I'd love to. I know some great shops. I'm sure we'll find just the thing for you."
"I doubt they have clothes in her size," Abby muttered, "I'd rather recommend our tailor instead."
"I would have dragged Em to Kirsty anyway," Cáit laughed, "I know we're probably going to have to get some things adjusted. But tailored underwear is probably a bit over the top."
"Can you please stop making fun of me and my size?" I grumbled - but Abby just grinned devilishly and said cheekily to my face, "Absolutely not. You have to deal with it from now on." Then she suddenly winked at me, "Besides, I will prepare the room next to Cáits for you. I can't expose anyone to the mess in Cáit's room any longer than necessary. My pride as a housekeeper won't allow it."
"I'm afraid I can't hear you," Cáit replied, pretending to cover her ears.